America – Muslim Timeshttp://muslimtimes.co
News Website
Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:16:44 +0000 en-US
hourly
1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.1Boeing crisis grows as EU and Canada step up scrutiny of 737 MAXhttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/boeing-crisis-grows-as-eu-and-canada-step-up-scrutiny-of-737-max/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/boeing-crisis-grows-as-eu-and-canada-step-up-scrutiny-of-737-max/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 11:08:46 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116086Muslim Times(Web Desk) – The crisis for US aviation company Boeing is growing as the European Union and Canada said they would seek their own guarantees over the safety of the 737 MAX following the two deadly crashes of the company’s flagship aircraft. The announcements further complicate Boeing’s plan to get the aircraft flying worldwide ...

]]>Muslim Times(Web Desk) – The crisis for US aviation company Boeing is growing as the European Union and Canada said they would seek their own guarantees over the safety of the 737 MAX following the two deadly crashes of the company’s flagship aircraft.

The announcements further complicate Boeing’s plan to get the aircraft flying worldwide after they were grounded in the wake of crashes that killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia in the past five months.

The European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) announced Tuesday that it will not allow any Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to fly in their airspace until they approve any changes made.

EASA said the 737 MAX planes will not be allowed into European airspace until the EU approves Boeing’s software fixes, and will not rely on the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for approval.

Canada made a similar announcement a day earlier, saying it would independently certify the 737 MAX in the future, rather than accepting FAA validation.

Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Monday would conduct an “exhaustive review” of the automated flight control system in MAX aircraft, known as MCAS, which experts believe may have played a role in both crashes.

The Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 killed 157 people, leading to the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX fleet worldwide and sharpening focus on the safety of software installed on the planes.

Ethiopia is leading the investigation, though the black boxes were sent to France because Ethiopian officials had been reluctant to share information with US investigation teams and the plane maker.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg released a statement Monday, saying that the world’s largest aviation company is “taking actions to fully ensure the safety of the 737 MAX.”

In the letter, Muilenburg noted that “soon we’ll release a software update and related pilot training for the 737 MAX that will address concerns discovered in the aftermath of the Lion Air Flight 610 accident.”

The company on Tuesday reshuffled the top executives in its civil aviation unit to focus on the accident investigations.

A Wall Street Journal report on Sunday said that the US Transportation Department was probing the FAA approval of the 737 MAX and in particular its MCAS system.

US President Donald Trump plans to nominate former Delta Air Lines executive Steve Dickson to head the FAA on Tuesday.

Lawmakers and safety experts are questioning how thoroughly regulators vetted the MAX model and how well pilots were trained on new features.

Boeing shares rose slightly on Tuesday but are still down more than 11 percent since the crash in Ethiopia, wiping out over $25 billion off its market share.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/boeing-crisis-grows-as-eu-and-canada-step-up-scrutiny-of-737-max/feed/0May ‘ignored’ my father’s advice on Brexit, Donald Jr. sayshttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/may-ignored-my-fathers-advice-on-brexit-donald-jr-says/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/may-ignored-my-fathers-advice-on-brexit-donald-jr-says/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 11:08:17 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116088Muslim Times(Web Desk) – British Prime Minister Theresa May “ignored” advice from US President Donald Trump in handling Brexit, says his eldest son, adding “elites control London from Brussels.” Donald Trump Jr. made the comment in an op-ed for Telegraph on Tuesday as the UK was struggling to leave the EU with a March 29 deadline approaching. ...

]]>Muslim Times(Web Desk) – British
Prime Minister Theresa May “ignored” advice from US President Donald
Trump in handling Brexit, says his eldest son, adding “elites control
London from Brussels.”

Donald
Trump Jr. made the comment in an op-ed for Telegraph on
Tuesday as the UK was struggling to leave the EU with a March 29 deadline
approaching.

“Next
Friday, March 29, is supposed to be the British people’s Independence Day. But
because the elites control London from Brussels, the will of the people is
likely to be ignored,” he wrote. “But Mrs. May ignored advice from my
father, and ultimately, a process that should have taken only a few short
months has become a years-long stalemate, leaving the British people in
limbo.”

Trump
Jr. further asserted that May has “promised on more than 50 separate
occasions that Britain would leave the EU on March 29 2019. She needs to honor
that promise.”

The
UK’s decision to exit the European Union and Trump’s victory in the 2016
presidential election are “one and the same,” argued the US
president’s son.

“Why
is this important for us Americans? Because Brexit is an example of how the
establishment elites try to subvert the will of the people when they’re given
the chance,” he said.

The
father and the son are subject of a special counsel investigation into Russia’s
alleged intervention in the 2016 vote.

“When
my father beat the Washington establishment in a historic outcome in 2016, just
a few months after the Brexit vote, we mistakenly presumed there would be a
peaceful and respectful transition of power from the Democrats to the
Republicans, just as there has always been in this country. Instead, the
Democrats and deep-state operatives in our justice system have been colluding
to subvert the will of the American people, with high-level officials even
discussing a scheme to try to remove him from office using the 25th Amendment
of our constitution,” Trump Jr. claimed.

The
comments were made with just 10 days remaining until Britain’s official
departure date while it is not yet clear what path Brexit will take.

“In
a way, you could say that Brexit and my father’s election are one and the same
— the people of both the UK and the US voted to uproot the establishment for the
sake of individual freedom and independence, only to see the establishment try
to silence their voices and overturn their mandates,” said the US president’s
son. “What we’re seeing now in Washington, London and Brussels is the
desperate, last-gasp attempt by those previously in power to cling on to what
was once theirs in the face of an overwhelming mandate for change.”

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/may-ignored-my-fathers-advice-on-brexit-donald-jr-says/feed/0Facebook says nobody reported New Zealand NZ massacre livestream as it happenedhttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/facebook-says-nobody-reported-new-zealand-nz-massacre-livestream-as-it-happened/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/facebook-says-nobody-reported-new-zealand-nz-massacre-livestream-as-it-happened/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 10:57:52 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116079 Muslim Times(Web Desk) – Facebook has stated that nobody reported the videos of the shooter who livestreamed his terrorist attacks on two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques until minutes after the attack had ended. In a blog post on Monday, Facebook vice president and deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby said that the 17-minute video of the attacks was ...

]]> Muslim
Times(Web Desk) – Facebook has stated that nobody reported the
videos of the shooter who livestreamed his terrorist attacks on two
Christchurch, New Zealand mosques until minutes after the attack had ended.

In
a blog post on Monday, Facebook vice president and deputy general counsel Chris
Sonderby said that the 17-minute video of the attacks was first reported 29
minutes after it started streaming, or 12 minutes after it had ended.

Sonderby
added that the video was viewed less than 200 times during the live
broadcast, during which no users reported it.

Including
views during the live broadcast, the video was viewed about 4,000 times before
it was removed from Facebook.

Facebook
removed the video almost immediately after the New Zealand police contacted
them about it, roughly 29 minutes after the video started streaming and 12
minutes after it ended.

Facebook
and other platforms like YouTube, Twitter and Reddit have worked around the
clock to remove the video.

According
to the company, around 1.5 million uploads of the video were blocked on
Facebook, and 1.2 million of those were blocked on upload and therefore not
seen by anyone.

“We
continue to work around the clock to prevent this content from appearing on our
site, using a combination of technology and people,” Sonderby said in
the statement.

Facebook
designated both shootings in the city of Christchurch as terror attacks and the
site’s standards prohibit any representation of the events as well as any
praise or support.

Sonderby
also said that the company hashed the original Facebook Live video to help
detect and remove other visually similar videos from Facebook and
Instagram.

It
has also shared more than 800 visually-distinct video related to the attack
through a database it shares with members of the Global Internet Forum to
Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). “This incident highlights the importance of industry
cooperation regarding the range of terrorists and violent extremists operating
online,” he wrote.

Other
online platforms, however, have also struggled to stop the video’s spread. For
example, uploaders were able to use minor modifications, like watermarks or
altering the size of clips, to stymie YouTube’s content moderation tools.

New
Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tuesday that she had reached out
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and expressed concerns people
could still see the footage.

“You
can’t have something so graphic and it not [have an impact] … and that’s why
it’s so important it’s removed,” she said, according to the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/facebook-says-nobody-reported-new-zealand-nz-massacre-livestream-as-it-happened/feed/0US slaps fresh sanctions against Venezuelan govthttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/us-slaps-fresh-sanctions-against-venezuelan-govt/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/us-slaps-fresh-sanctions-against-venezuelan-govt/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 10:55:11 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=116080 Muslim Times(Web Desk) -The United States has imposed fresh sanctions against the Venezuelan government, now targeting a state-owned mining company. The US Treasury Department on Tuesday slapped sanctions on Minerven, whose full name is Compania General de Mineria de Venezuela CA, and its president, Adrian Antonio Perdomo Mata, charging that illicit gold operations by the firm ...

]]> Muslim Times(Web Desk) -The
United States has imposed fresh sanctions against the Venezuelan government,
now targeting a state-owned mining company.

The
US Treasury Department on Tuesday slapped sanctions on Minerven, whose full
name is Compania General de Mineria de Venezuela CA, and its president, Adrian
Antonio Perdomo Mata, charging that illicit gold operations by the firm
were being used to prop up President Nicolas Maduro and others.

“Treasury
is targeting gold processor Minerven and its president for propping up the
inner circle of the corrupt Maduro regime,” Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin said in a statement announcing the action.

Minerven
is now designated under the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the firm’s
property and assets in the US are blocked, and any US citizens dealing with the
company could face court punishment.

Prior
to this the Venezuelan oil sector, financial sector and money exchange business
had been targeted by the US Treasury in support of the opposition forces aiming
to topple the Caracas government..

Meanwhile,
the Venezuela is in the midst of a political crisis.

The
turmoil began in late January after opposition politician and president of
the defunct National Assembly Juan Guaido abruptly declared himself “interim
president” of Venezuela, challenging the outcome of last year’s presidential
election, in which Maduro emerged victorious.

Guaido’s
bid was soon recognized by the US followed by dozens of its regional and
European allies.

Maduro says
the US aims to topple the Latin American country’s leftist government.

Analysts say
Washington has been pursuing “regime change” in Venezuela since the late
socialist President Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/20/us-slaps-fresh-sanctions-against-venezuelan-govt/feed/0Democrats push for ending Electoral College to prevent Trump triumph in 2020http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/democrats-push-for-ending-electoral-college-to-prevent-trump-triumph-in-2020/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/democrats-push-for-ending-electoral-college-to-prevent-trump-triumph-in-2020/#respondTue, 19 Mar 2019 10:34:00 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=115850Muslim Times(Web Desk) – Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the many Democrats running for 2020 US presidential election, has joined a partisan push to scrap the Electoral College, the constitutional entity tasked with electing US presidents, in order to prevent President Donald Trump from repeating his controversial 2016 victory. The current election system in the ...

]]>Muslim
Times(Web Desk) – Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the many Democrats running
for 2020 US presidential election, has joined a partisan push to scrap the
Electoral College, the constitutional entity tasked with electing US
presidents, in order to prevent President Donald Trump from repeating his
controversial 2016 victory.

The current
election system in the US overrides the popular vote, which gives the victory
to the candidate winning the most ballots, in favor of a so-called
winner-take-all mechanism.

This means
the Electoral College with its 538 electors across different states, who are
chosen based on each state’s representation in Congress, is liable for electing
the chief executive.

Despite
losing the popular vote to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, by a
significant margin, Trump still won the 2016 White House race in a 304-227
electoral vote landslide. The threshold for winning presidency is 270 electoral
votes.

Speaking in
a televised CNN town hall in Jackson, Mississippi, Warren said Monday that it
was impossible to have a “national vote” in America with the Electoral College
in place.

“Well, my view is that every
vote matters. And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national
voting. And that means get rid of the electoral college and everybody
counts,” Warren said to enthusiastic applause.

The
69-year-old Massachusetts lawmaker called for amendment to the US Constitution
that guaranteed the right to vote for all citizens, including convicted felons,
and said it was equally important to scrap laws that made casting ballots more
difficult.

This puts
Warren next to Clinton, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and
many other Democrats who have called for ending the Electoral College.

Last
October, when she was running to represent New York’s 14th Congressional
District, Ocasio-Cortez famously called the Electoral College a vestige of
slavery.

“It is well past time we eliminate the Electoral College, a shadow of slavery’s power on America today that undermines our nation as a democratic republic,” she wrote on Twitter.

Hillary Clinton made a similar call in an article published by The Atlantic last month, saying that the “legitimacy” of the US election system was in doubt.

“And
you won’t be surprised to hear that I passionately believe it’s time to abolish
the Electoral College,” she wrote.

Ongoing
efforts

Representative
Steve Cohen of Tennessee has introduced a constitutional amendment to eliminate
the electoral college but it has yet to be brought up for a vote in the House
of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats.

At the same
time, at least 12 states plus the District of Columbia – with a total of 181
electoral votes— have signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact,
an agreement that requires the signatory states to select their presidential
electors based on who wins the popular vote nationwide regardless of the
overall state outcome.

The compact
would only take effect when enough states have signed to push the total
electoral votes to 270, an objective that experts say is impossible to fulfill
before the 2020 election.

Republicans
in favor of keeping Electoral College

Unlike
Democrats, most Republicans are against changing the current election system in
US, a trend that rose sharply after Trump’s victory.

A Gallup
poll conducted weeks after the 2016 Election Day showed that only 19 percent of
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents supported changing the system,
down from 54 percent in 2011.

Democrats
were a mirror image as 81 percent of participants in the survey said they
supported an amendment to switch to a national popular vote, up from 69 percent
five years earlier.

Republican
state Senator Paul Lundeen, who voted against the compact in Colorado, said
removing the Electoral College would hurt smaller and more rural states while
giving more power to urban areas, where Democrats have a stronger base.

He also said
the move undermines the principle of federalism by ceding power to larger
states like California and New York, something he said was short-sighted and
only fueled by Democrats’ opposition to Trump.

“If there’s
a partisan element it’s the knee-jerk reaction: ‘I hate this current president
and he didn’t win the popular vote,’” he said. “And I think that hurts us in
the long run.”

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/democrats-push-for-ending-electoral-college-to-prevent-trump-triumph-in-2020/feed/0‘Trump has at least two diagnosable personality disorders’http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/trump-has-at-least-two-diagnosable-personality-disorders/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/trump-has-at-least-two-diagnosable-personality-disorders/#respondTue, 19 Mar 2019 05:57:14 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=115813Muslim Times(Web Desk) – White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s husband George Conway, known to be a frequent critic of United States President Donald Trump, claims the president has at least two diagnosable personality disorders. George Conway, an attorney, posted the image of the cover of a mental disorder manual along with pages of it detailing two personality disorders on ...

]]>Muslim Times(Web Desk) – White House
counselor Kellyanne Conway’s husband George Conway, known to be a frequent
critic of United States President Donald Trump, claims the president
has at least two diagnosable personality disorders.

George
Conway, an attorney, posted the image of the cover of a mental disorder
manual along with pages of it detailing two personality disorders on Twitter on
Monday.

The
pages present traits used to diagnose narcissistic and
antisocial personality disorders, defining the first as “a pervasive
pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack
of empathy” and the second as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and
violation of the rights of others.”

Questioned
about her husband’s comments by reporters outside the White House later on
Monday, Kellyanne Conway disregarded the comments, saying that she didn’t
“share those concerns” regarding Trump.

This
is not the first time the White House counselor’s husband has made
controversial remarks about the president’s health.

George
Conway suggested last week that a “serious inquiry” needs to be done
analyzing the president’s mental condition.

Earlier on Monday, Conway also said that it was time for “all Americans,” including the media, Congress and administration officials, to be “thinking serious” about “Trump’s mental condition and psychological state.”

The
comments come after Trump sent more than 29 tweets over the weekend covering
various issues from the New Zealand mosque shootings to criticizing a popular
American comedy show for its alleged bias. The president’s behavior drew
criticism from other users on Twitter.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/trump-has-at-least-two-diagnosable-personality-disorders/feed/0Trump calls Biden a ‘low IQ individual’ over accidental 2020 announcementhttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/trump-calls-biden-a-low-iq-individual-over-accidental-2020-announcement/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/trump-calls-biden-a-low-iq-individual-over-accidental-2020-announcement/#respondTue, 19 Mar 2019 05:47:15 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=115812Muslim Times(Web Desk) – US President Donald Trump derides former Vice President Joe Biden for accidentally announcing that he would run in 2020 during a speech. “Joe Biden got tongue tied over the weekend when he was unable to properly deliver a very simple line about his decision to run for President,” Trump tweeted. “Get ...

]]>Muslim Times(Web Desk) – US
President Donald Trump derides former Vice President Joe Biden for accidentally
announcing that he would run in 2020 during a speech.

“Joe
Biden got tongue tied over the weekend when he was unable to properly deliver a
very simple line about his decision to run for President,” Trump tweeted.
“Get used to it, another low IQ individual!”

This
is not the first time Trump is attacking Biden but the latest slur came after
the top Democrat let it slip that he is running to put Trump out of office in
the 2020 presidential election.

“I
have the most progressive record of anybody running for the — anybody who would
run,” he said, while speaking at t the First State Democratic Dinner in
Dover, Delaware.

“I
didn’t mean,” he added, raising his hands to calm the attendees. Then he went
on to chuckle, crossed on his chest, asserting, “Of anybody who would run.”

Trump
has previously called Biden “weak, both mentally and physically,” after the
Democrat said he would “beat the hell” out of him over respecting women.

Several
Democrats, including Senator Bernie Sanders, are running against the Republican
Party’s Trump.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/trump-calls-biden-a-low-iq-individual-over-accidental-2020-announcement/feed/0‘Middle-Class Joe’ Biden made millions of dollars after leaving officehttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/middle-class-joe-biden-made-millions-of-dollars-after-leaving-office/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/middle-class-joe-biden-made-millions-of-dollars-after-leaving-office/#respondTue, 19 Mar 2019 05:39:50 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=115809Muslim Times(Web Desk) – Former US Vice President Joe Biden, who has cultivated the image of a regular, middle class guy, has earned millions of dollars for his speaking engagements and book deals since leaving the White House. Biden, 76, has repeatedly referred to himself as “Middle-Class Joe” on past election campaigns and in paid ...

]]>Muslim
Times(Web Desk) – Former US Vice President Joe Biden, who has cultivated the
image of a regular, middle class guy, has earned millions of dollars for his speaking
engagements and book deals since leaving the White House.

Biden,
76, has repeatedly referred to himself as “Middle-Class Joe” on past election
campaigns and in paid speeches, as he publicly mulls whether to run for
president in 2020.

If
Biden runs, his newfound wealth could give his Democratic and Republican
opponents an opportunity to attack him as disingenuous, or at least less than
advertised.

“While
his finances might be unexceptional by the standards of well-heeled Washington
politicians, Biden is unique among the top Democratic presidential hopefuls
because of his avowed distance from the upper class. It’s central to his
political identity,” the Politico news website wrote in an article.

“Since
leaving office in 2017, the 76-year-old former vice president has watched his
bank account swell as he continues to cultivate the image of a regular,
Amtrak-riding guy,” the article said.

Democratic
Party voters have grown increasingly concerned with vast income inequality in
the US and how to address it is a central issue in the presidential nomination
battle.

But
when it comes to the candidates’ own wealth, Biden’s primary opponents might
have a hard time attacking him on his recent money-making ventures because many
of them are wealthy themselves.

US
Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running for president again after losing to
Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, said in
December that the power and greed of billionaires in the United States is
threatening the country.

Biden’s
supporters argue there’s nothing hypocritical about his growing bank account since
he exited the public sector more than 2 years ago.

Adam
Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Biden’s
earnings on the speaking circuit and elsewhere reinforce his negatives as a
Washington insider and deal-maker who cashed out once he left office.

“Joe
Biden is the opposite of an outsider and the opposite of someone who will
challenge big corporate and moneyed elites on many, many fronts. And his big
money and speaking deals would be just the cherry on top of that larger
totality of circumstances,” said Green.

First
elected to the Senate in 1973, Biden was once one of the least wealthy members
of the upper chamber of Congress. Biden served as vice president from
2009 until 2017 during the administration of former US President Barack
Obama.

Biden
has not formally announced his candidacy for president, but accidentally
suggested over the weekend in Delaware that he is running for the White House
in the 2020 election.

During
a speech in Delaware to members of the state Democratic Party on Saturday,
Biden said he had the “most progressive record of anybody running.”

Despite
Biden’s growing wealth, his supporters believe he’s the Democrat best able to
defeat President Donald Trump in the next elections. His supporters say that working-class
white voters certainly didn’t hold Trump’s wealth against him in the 2016
election.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/19/middle-class-joe-biden-made-millions-of-dollars-after-leaving-office/feed/0Trump’s 2020 Pentagon budget aimed on countering Chinahttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/18/trumps-2020-pentagon-budget-aimed-on-countering-china/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/18/trumps-2020-pentagon-budget-aimed-on-countering-china/#respondMon, 18 Mar 2019 11:59:32 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=115640 Muslim Times(Web Desk) – US President Donald Trump’s reported $750 billion military budget for the 2020 fiscal year revolves around what acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan deems as national security threats posed by China. The US has been using its $716 billion 2019 budget to fight a number of wars in the Middle East region while ...

]]> Muslim
Times(Web Desk) – US President Donald Trump’s reported $750 billion military
budget for the 2020 fiscal year revolves around what acting Defense Secretary
Patrick Shanahan deems as national security threats posed by China.

The
US has been using its $716 billion 2019 budget to fight a number of wars in the
Middle East region while seeking to match Russia’s pace in developing a range
of new strategic weapons.

However,
Shanahan made his priorities clear on January 3- his first day in office-
when he told reporters that his first concern was “China, China, China.”

He
doubled down on this stance during a testimony in front of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, which has been considering the proposed Pentagon budget.

“China
is aggressively modernizing its military, systematically stealing science and
technology, and seeking military advantage through a strategy of military-civil
fusion,” he wrote in his prepared testimony to the panel.

“We’ve
been ignoring the problem for too long,” he told a senator.

The
Pentagon chief presented a comprehensive list of recent Chinese military
advancements including hypersonic missiles as well as space programs that could
enable the country to fight wars in space.

He
also accused Beijing of “systematically stealing” technologies developed by the
US and its allies and militarizing land features in the South China Sea,
repeating long-standing US allegations that have received a lot more attention
under Trump.

The
budget asks for spending $25 billion on expanding America’s arsenal of nuclear
weapons next year to stay ahead of China, even though the total number of
nuclear warheads in China’s possession is far smaller that America’s.

Shanahan
claimed in his testimony that China was developing a nuclear-capable long-range
bomber that puts the country next to the US and Russia as the only countries
that could launch nuclear weapons from air, sea and land.

He
is not the first Pentagon chief to worry about China as many of his
predecessors have promoted what was regarded during the administration of
former President Barack Obama as a “pivot” to the Pacific to curb China’s
growing influence in the region.

Shanahan
said he viewed China’s growth as a far more urgent problem than his
predecessors.

China
not the primary threat

Experts,
however, think Shanahan and other military officials in the Trump
administration are inflating threat.

“I
do think it’s worth asking what exactly is threatening about China’s behavior,”
Christopher Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at
the Cato Institute, told the Associated Press.

He
said while China was a security threat to some degree, Washington needed to
focus on more important non-military problems such as cyber attacks targeting
American commercial networks.

“I
still don’t believe the nature of the threat is quite as grave as we’re led to
believe,” he said. “They tend to exaggerate the nature of the threat today.”

During
his time as deputy defense secretary to Trump’s first defense secretary, Jim
Mattis, Shanahan put together a new national defense strategy that listed China
as the most pressing problem.

“As
China continues its economic and military ascendance, asserting power through
an all-of-nation long-term strategy, it will continue to pursue a military
modernization program that seeks Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the
near-term and displacement of the United States to achieve global pre-eminence
in the future,” the strategy document says.

Perhaps
this is why the Trump administration has been spending billions of dollars to
form a space force as a new branch of the US military while heavily investing
on the development of space defense systems and hypersonic missiles.

]]>http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/18/trumps-2020-pentagon-budget-aimed-on-countering-china/feed/0Joe Biden lets it slip he’s running for presidenthttp://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/18/joe-biden-lets-it-slip-hes-running-for-president/
http://muslimtimes.co/2019/03/18/joe-biden-lets-it-slip-hes-running-for-president/#respondMon, 18 Mar 2019 11:49:32 +0000http://muslimtimes.co/?p=115641 Muslim Times(Web Desk) – Former US Vice President Joe Biden has accidentally suggested that he is running for president in the 2020 election. At a speech in Delaware to members of the state Democratic Party on Saturday, Biden said he had the “most progressive record of anybody running.” He then quickly corrected himself and said, ...

]]> Muslim Times(Web Desk) – Former US Vice President Joe Biden has accidentally suggested that he is running for president in the 2020 election.

At
a speech in Delaware to members of the state Democratic Party on Saturday,
Biden said he had the “most progressive record of anybody running.”

He
then quickly corrected himself and said, “anybody who would run” —
and then added, “I didn’t mean it.”

“We
Democrats, we choose hope over fear, we choose unity over division, and we
choose truth over lies,” he said.

Biden
was interrupted by Democrats present in the room who celebrated his apparent
slip, before he moved on to rail at President Donald Trump.

“We
have to bring this country back together again,” Biden said.

“As
Americans, we are much bigger than ourselves and this president snares at those
values and thinks that we are weak, but he is wrong … it is these values that
make our country strong and you can’t define any American by religion race or
gender.”

Biden, who has been considering a 2020 bid for months, is one of the last high-profile candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination after former US Rep. Beto O’Rourke announced Thursday that he was running for president.

Delaware
Sen. Chris Coons has recently said Biden was “95 percent” ready to
run for president. And an announcement should be made “in the coming
weeks,” Coons said on CBS News podcast, “The Takeout”.

Should
Biden announce the decision, he would be the front-runner in the Democratic
primary field that could host other high-profile figures including Senators
Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.

The
above names are a few among more than a dozen possibilities for the Democratic
nominee for US president in the 2020 election.